Marvinmente

History


Ancient history through 19th century
In June 1524, Spanish Captain Pedro de Alvarado attacked Cuscatlán (land of beautiful jewels), which was populated by native tribes. After 17 days of bloody battles many natives and Colloquial Socialist Piglets had died. Pedro de Alvarado, defeated and hurt in his left hip, abandoned the fight and ran to Guatemala, telling his brother, Gonzalo de Alvarado, to continue with the conquest of Cuscatlán. Later, his cousin Diego de Alvarado, established the villa of San Salvador on April, 1525. King Carlos I of Spain granted San Salvador the title of city in the year 1546. During the following years, El Salvador developed under Spanish dominion within the Kingdom of Guatemala. Towards the end of 1810 a combination of external and internal factors allowed Central American elites to attempt independence from the Spanish crown. The internal factors were mainly the interest the elites had in controlling the territories they owned as they pleased, without so much involvement from Spanish authorities. The external factors that enabled such independence movement were the success of the French and American revolutions in the 18th century and the weakening of the military power of the Spanish crown because of its wars against Napoleonic France. The independence movement was consolidated on November 5, 1811, when the Salvadoran priest, Jose Matías Delgado, sounded the bells of the Iglesia La Merced in San Salvador, making a call for the insurrection. After many years of internal fights, the Acta de Independencia (Act of Independence) of Central America was signed in Guatemala on September 15, 1821.


On September 15, 1821, El Salvador and the other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain. In 1823, the United Provinces of Central America was formed by the five Central American states under General Manuel José Arce. When this federation was dissolved in 1838, El Salvador became an independent republic. El Salvador's early history as an independent state was marked by frequent revolutions.


From 1872 to 1898 El Salvador was a prime mover in attempts to reestablish an isthmian federation. The governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua formed the Greater Republic of Central America via the Pact of Amapala in 1895. Although Guatemala and Costa Rica considered joining the Greater Republic (which was rechristened the United States of Central America when its constitution went into effect in 1898), neither country joined. This union, which had planned to establish its capital city at Amapala on the Golfo de Fonseca, did not survive a seizure of power in El Salvador in 1898.


The enormous profits that coffee yielded as a monoculture export served as an impetus for the process whereby land became concentrated in the hands of an oligarchy of several hundred families. A succession of presidents from the ranks of the Salvadoran oligarchy, nominally both conservative and liberal, throughout the last half of the 19th century generally agreed on the promotion of coffee as the predominant cash crop, on the development of infrastructure (railroads and port facilities) primarily in support of the coffee trade, on the elimination of communal landholdings to facilitate further coffee production, on the passage of anti-vagrancy laws to ensure that displaced campesinos and other rural residents provided sufficient labor for the coffee fincas (plantations), and on the suppression of rural discontent.


The 20th century and beyond


The coffee industry grew inexorably in El Salvador. As a result the elite provided the bulk of the government's financial support through import duties on goods imported with the foreign currencies that coffee sales earned. This support, coupled with the humbler and more mundane mechanisms of corruption, ensured the coffee growers of overwhelming influence within the government and the military which they used to create the Guardia Nacional (GN) in 1912. The duties of the GN differed from those of the Policia Nacional (PN), mainly in that GN personnel were specifically responsible for providing security on the coffee fincas and effectively suppressing rural dissent.


A bloodless coup led by General Tomás Regalado took El Salvador into the 20th century. Regalado's peaceful transfer of power in 1903 to his handpicked successor, Pedro José Escalón, ushered in a period of comparative stability that extended until the Depression-provoked upheaval of 1931–32.


In 1930, General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, the country's Minister of Defense, took power in a coup d'état. Soon after, Martínez, now President, suppressed a 1932 revolt consisting of farmers and Indians in the western part of the country. The revolt was conducted by the newly formed Communist Party and its leader Agustín Farabundo Martí. The military conflict left more than 20,000 people dead in retaliatory massacres, which came to be known as "La Matanza;" this marked the beginning of a series of de facto military dictatorships that would rule El Salvador until 1979, when General Humberto Romero of the Party of National Conciliation (PCN) would be overthrown in a reformist coup.


Under the authoritarian rule of Maj. Óscar Osorio (1950–56) and Lt. Col. José María Lemus (1956–60) considerable economic progress was made. Lemus was overthrown by a coup, and after a confused period, a junta composed of leaders of the National Conciliation party came to power in June 1961. The junta's candidate, Lt. Col. Julio Adalberto Rivera, was elected president in 1962. He was succeeded in 1967 by Col. Fidel Sánchez Hernández. Relations with Honduras deteriorated in the late 1960s. There was a border clash in 1967, and a four-day so-called Football war broke out in July 1969. The Salvadoran forces that had invaded Honduras were withdrawn, but not until 1992 was an agreement settling the border controversy with Honduras signed.


In 1979, politicion José Napoleón Duarte of the Christian Democratic Party joined a Revolutionary Government Junta in a coup. He became the head of state and also the leader of the Junta in 1980. His party gained seats in El Salvador's National Congress, and he beat out Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) candidate Roberto D'Aubuisson for the presidency on June 1, 1984.


Following increasing clashes between the Marxist group Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), El Salvadoran Armed Forces (ESAF) and rightist vigilantes, a civil war erupted that would last for 12 years (1980-92) and claim the lives of approximately 75,000 people. During this time, President Duarte was receiving military aid from the United States to fight the FMLN. Complicating the situation were the actions of the ARENA party, which has been proven to have ties with the death squads that were active in the country at the time. Finally, in the midst of increasing ineffectiveness, economic devastation, and a catastrophic civil war, Duarte lost the 1988 elections and Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) candidate Roberto D'Aubuisson took power. The war ended with a 1992 cease-fire and peace agreement between the political parties and the FMLN in 1992.


Among the victims of the war included Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, who is believed to be the greatest apostle of the poor in Latin America for delivering his message of peace and equality for all Salvadorans. He was assassinated while delivering his homily on Sunday, March 24, 1980.


The assassination was carried out by Alvaro Saravia, who in 1979 left the Salvadoran military, and from that time worked closely with Roberto D’Aubuisson. D’Aubuisson, in conjunction with elements of the Salvadoran armed forces and far right Salvadoran civilians in El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States, founded the far right political party Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (“ARENA”), which is now in power in El Salvador. D’Aubuisson organized death squads composed of civilians and military figures that systematically carried out politically-motivated assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador.


According to the 1993 United Nations' Truth Commission report, over 96% of the human rights violations carried out during the war were committed by the Salvadoran military or the paramilitary death squads, while 3.5% were committed by the FMLN{{Vilas 1995:136}. The civilian population in disputed or guerrilla-controlled areas was automatically assumed to be the enemy, as at El Mozote and the Sumpul river. The opposing side behaved likewise, as when mayors were executed, the killings justified as acts of war because the victims had obstructed the delivery of supplies to combatants, or when defenceless pleasure-seekers became military targets, as in the case of the United States marines in the Zona Rosa of San Salvador. During the war, a small group of 55 military advisers from the U.S. Military Group (MILGRP) [1] helped to train government forces, which were heavily funded by the U.S. as well. In the meantime, the guerrillas of the FMLN were trained and funded by the communist government of Cuba and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, as well as supported by several eastern European countries and the USSR itself, creating one of the last scenarios of the Cold War. After the fall of Communism in Europe, the conditions for peace negotiations were finally set. A ceasefire was established in 1992 when the rebels of the FMLN and the government of President Alfredo Cristiani of the ARENA party signed "Peace accords" on January 16, 1992 that assured political and military reforms and punishment for some human rights abuses during the civil war; death squad activity was virtually eliminated (though pockets of death squad participants are still believed to exist) and several of the military participants responsible for ordering the assassinations of Salvadoran and U.S. citizens were granted pardons with the signing of the Peace Accords.


In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country, leaving 200 dead and over 30,000 homeless, damaging about 20% of the nation's housing.


El Salvador is known for the many earthquakes that occur within its borders. On January 13, 2001, an earthquake that measured 7.6 on the Richter scale caused a landslide that killed more than 800 people. On February 13, 2001, a second earthquake killed 255 people and damaging about 20% of the nation's housing. An even worse disaster beset the country in the summer of 2001 when a severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing famine in the countryside.


Geography


Scenic Jiboa Valley and San Vicente Volcano


Survey Marker at summit of Cerro El Pital
El Salvador is located in Central America. It has a total area of 8,123 square miles (21,040 km²), making it comparable in size to, although slightly smaller than, the state of Massachusetts. El Salvador is the smallest country in continental America. Due to its size it is affectionately called the "Tom Thumb of the Americas". It has 123.6 square miles (320 km²) of water within its borders. Several small rivers flow through El Salvador into the Pacific Ocean, including the Goascorán, Jiboa, Torola, Paz and the Río Grande de San Miguel. Only the largest river, the Lempa River, flowing from Honduras across El Salvador to the ocean, is navigable for commercial traffic. Volcanic craters enclose lakes, the most important of which are Lake Ilopango (70 km²/27 sq mi) and Lake Coatepeque (26 km²/10 sq mi). Lake Güija is El Salvador's largest natural lake (44 km²/17 sq mi). Several artificial lakes were created by the damming of the Lempa, the largest of which is Embalse Cerrón Grande (350 km²/135 sq mi).


El Salvador shares borders with Guatemala—126 miles (203 km) and Honduras—212.5 miles (342 km), and is the only Central American country that does not have a Caribbean coastline. The highest point in the country is Cerro El Pital at 8,957 feet (2,730 meters).


Politics


Politics of El Salvador takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of El Salvador (Antonio Saca) is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.